Mumbai’s loopholes exposed!!

The day when India was playing its second ODI against South Africa, the so called hub of Indian cricket, Mumbai was biting dust against the rookies of Jharkhand at the Wankhede. All of us saw the same happen to the Indian team. 

Right from the day one of the match Jharkhand left no stone unturned to get into the skin of Mumbai. Though the top order of the guests didn’t do a great job, it was all thanks to Saurabh Tiwary who remained unbeaten making a double century. But apart from that from the batting line up, there was no one who did enough to make a comprehensive score. The bowling department was led by the fastest bowler of India, Varun Aroon. Ripping apart the top order of the hosts, Varun bowled nasty bouncers coupled with edgy and quick spells which made it difficult for the batsmen to stay on the crease. Even the Pathan of Mumbai cricket, Wasim Jaffer, could not hold on to the pressure and made an immediately departed to the pavilion in both the innings. The specialist opener of Mumbai, Sushant Marathe failed to impress in both the innings. Jharkand might have remained on the bottom of the table but at the same time it managed to expose a lot of loopholes of the Ranji Champions, 2013. 

From this match one could clearly see that Mumbai missed the services of Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane. The bowling department was led by the skipper Abhishekh Nayar, Vishal Dabholkar and Javed Khan.  The batting department lacked luster, the decision of picking up Marathe in placed of Kaustabh Pawar proved to the biggest gamble. The visitors looked much more active on the field as compared to the hosts. 

The match ended up with a draw but left a lot of homework and immense of thinking for Mumbai to do before their match against Orissa.